Pandemonium Aviaries - Organisation dedicated to preventing the extinction of targeted avian species through conservation and education.

Pigeon Aid UK - A site that provides advice for those who have picked up a sick, injured or baby pigeon and need guidance.

Pigeon and Dove Rescue - A website aimed at providing help for anyone that has rescued a pigeon or dove by providing details of pigeon friendly rescue centres, vets and guidance on how to care for orphaned, sick or injured pigeons.

Pigeon Angels - A forum dedicated to the support & care of all pigeons, feral or fancy, that find themselves in jeopardy.

Pigeon Blog - A bona fide urban pigeon telling it how it is for the pigeons of London.

Pigeon Control Advisory Service (PiCAS) - PiCAS specialises in the provision of non-lethal, holistic and sustainable bird control systems, which will result in a permanent reduction in bird numbers.

Pigeon Control Resource Centre (PCRC) - An online resource for anyone with a pigeon-related problem. All information and advice provided on the website is geared towards completely solving pigeon control problems by the use of humane and non-lethal control methods.

Urban Wildlife Society - Their mission is to promote appreciation for all animals, particularly pigeons, that share the city and suburbs with humans. The website is filled with information and articles about inhumane pest control and offers advice on alternative measures.

Wild Bird Fund - Website for the non-profit organization that provides assistance for wild birds, including feral pigeons, in New York City.

Pet pigeons - what we meanExplaining what we mean when we talk about keeping pigeons as pets. In brief: We mean keeping tame, imprinted or disabled pigeons that would not otherwise survive in the wild.

The past few weeks have been upsetting for all of us. Elmo has been in a foul mood and nothing Richard and I do seems to make him happy. We don’t know what has happened to upset Elmo so much but we’re trying our best to improve things so Elmo feels better.

Here’s what I do know:

Elmo’s bad mood started shortly after we went on holiday.

Elmo started moulting during the week of our holiday.

Now I could understand his bad mood if we had left him for a week, but no, we didn’t leave at all! We stayed at home for our holiday, so what’s Elmo so angry about? Was it my constant presence (since I’m the rival)? I know that my pigeons can feel vulnerable when moulting, but Elmo’s behaviour is a bit extreme.

Elmo has now stopped moulting and we have gone back to work, but he’s still not his usual cuddly-cute, happy self.

The day we went back to work Elmo did show a bit of his usual behaviour – he cooed to us and greeted us – but that was short lived. He’s a bit better with Richard, no longer pecking him like he was during our holiday, but he’s not showing him the love that he usually does. I’m finding this all a bit stressful since I hate to see Elmo so angry.

All Elmo does now is chase me about the flat to attack my feet. I know the difference from his playful attacking behaviour, and this is not it. He wants to hurt me and he attacks in anger. The last time he was like this was when he was broody and sitting on the fake eggs.

I really hope Elmo feels better soon because I feel he’s also getting stressed about the situation. I’ve been giving him treats and trying to be loving but Elmo does not want me to be around him, so I will try to keep out of his way.

Even the sight of the camera didn’t excite his usual amorous feelings towards it!

Every Christmas we have the same problem. We bring out the tree, the decorations, the lights and the hats and Elmo and Georgie protest – it takes days for Elmo to pluck up the courage to run past the Christmas tree, the twinkling lights annoy Georgie (cue: wing slaps and angry coos), and heavens forbid we dare put on a Santa hat to get into the Christmas spirit!! Elmo HATES them. It’s as if we turn into gremlins when we place them on our heads – Elmo runs a mile, shaking with fear. If we place the hat on the floor Elmo will rush over to kill it.

Last year I attempted to wear one while decorating the tree, jumping about to corny Christmas music and Elmo nearly had a heart attack. So now we can bring out some decorations (but only a few respectable ones) and the Christmas spirit, but we have to make sure we look and behave relatively normal, as if nothing has changed, just another normal day in the calendar year. I guess the neighbours will be glad that we’ve toned down with the amount of lights we put up.

However, I’m seriously thinking that with all this humbug attitude going on I won’t give Elmo and Georgie any special seed presents this Christmas. They certainly haven’t helped so why should I bother?! Maybe the feral flock will be more accepting?

You may think that the outcome would be obvious when a cat and a pigeon meet: Surprise attack, feathers everywhere, one satisfied cat. However, in some instances it is the other way around: Surprise attack, fur everywhere and one satisfied pigeon!

I know I’ve already written about Elmo and our visiting friendly tabby cat (see above link), but this time I took video of them. Generally the cat will leg it as soon as she hears or sees Elmo but my husband somehow managed to lull the cat into a comfortable coma and she seemed oblivious to Elmo’s attentions. (Sorry about the poor lighting in the videos.)

Recently I looked through all the photos and videos we have of our Elmo and Georgie and I found some that I hadn’t yet shared with you, so I would like to do so now.

You may remember when I wrote about the tabby cat that visits us (back in November 2011: Elmo meets a cat!). Here’s photos of the cat relaxing on our sofa with an unimpressed Elmo on her back:

The cat (which I believe is female) doesn’t care at all about our pigeons – she’s only interested in us – and we’ve had a lot of fun in seeing Elmo chase her away when he decides she’s taking too many liberties on the sofa with us!

Before Elmo came to live with us he used to live in a household with many cats, rabbits and other birds (for the first 8 years of his life). He used to sleep on the bed with an elderly cat and also had play fights with the rabbits. Elmo now only has to put up with Georgie’s presence (and the occasional visit from the cat) and I’m sure he feels like the king of the home. Elmo probably has lots of precious memories of his previous life. I wish I could have been there to see him as a baby and to watch him play with the cats and rabbits. Sadly, I haven’t been able to get hold of any photos of Elmo from his previous life.

Now that I start work in the afternoons I spend my mornings at home with Georgie and Elmo. Elmo used to always attack me and consider me a threat to his relationship with my husband, but now he’s getting used to my company and requests cuddles and attention.

Here’s Elmo when he discovered Georgie’s empty nest and decided to nest in it himself:

Sometimes, however, Elmo remembers that he’s doesn’t like me (in principle) and will attack my fingers:

In the video you can see Georgie in her nest being all moody and attacking the nest. She does this sometimes before she lays eggs. Silly girl.

Most of the time, though, Georgie is loving and likes to preen my arm. It tickles at first but then Georgie gets really excited and starts to pull at the hairs and skin, which can hurt. Elmo also likes to preen arms. It’s their way of telling us they love us. In the wild a pigeon will preen its mate around the face to strengthen their bond and as a sign of affection. It’s lovely to see and we are honoured that our pigeons preen us.

Elmo disagrees. He’s taken a serious dislike to the owl socks and will not leave them alone when I wear them.

As you probably noticed, at one point (40 seconds in) Elmo notices the camera and begins flirting with it. He’s so fickle!

But back to being attacked: It’s become so annoying that I now cannot wear the socks at home. Elmo will follow me about in his drive to peck the socks – it makes life very difficult when you’re trying to walk with a pigeon attached to your toes.

On a light note, Elmo makes an impression on my favourite snuggle fleece:

There are a few things Elmo is afraid of. In order of the most scary thing:

Hats and helmets – he’s scared of anyone wearing a hat or helmet.

Vacuum cleaner – but then again, who isn’t?

Feathers – yes, Elmo is in fact afraid of any feathers lying about, and will peck at them vigorously to make them go away. However, if we hand him a feather he will most likely take it to his nest as bedding.

Other people have told me that their pigeons are afraid of sunglasses and towels on heads. What about yours?

Things Elmo likes to attack:

Toys

Pens

My toes

My hands

Bizarrely, Elmo loves my heels! He’ll coo to them romantically and do a little dance, however, if I show him my toes, he’ll attack them.

Georgie no longer likes popcorn or peanuts, and I have no idea why, she just stopped eating them. But she will still try to drink my hot chocolate, although she is strictly forbidden to do so since chocolate is very poisonous to birds. She still hates any lights shining on her such as torches or camera lights. And she loves to peck at socks, especially if you wiggle your toes.

Last week I had to take Jules away from the aviary because one of the pigeons had pecked her and she was bleeding around her right eye. Thankfully, there was no damage done and after receiving pain relief medication and a few nights away to recover she was fine. While Jules recuperated I went into the resident aviary to see what could have been the problem and quickly identified that a lack of nesting sites was probably the main issue. A few of the flighted pigeons had taken up the hutches on the floor to nest in instead of using the nests on the shelves higher up, which left the flightless pigeons (from broken wings) no place to nest. So Jules had probably tried to go into one of the occupied hutches and was attacked.

I found some empty hutches and put them in the aviary and the nestless couples went to investigate the new properties.

Property to rent!

Button, who has a broken wing, and his flighted mate, Davina, decided the top hutch was the perfect spot to nest in. Button manages to get to the top hutch by hopping from the log to the hutch. They seem very happy together and I heard Davina’s loving coos to Button when I went to take a photo.

Davina (left) and Button (right) in their new home

Davey and Jules have taken up residency in the bottom hutch! Which means that every couple now has a place to nest in and peace should reign. … But pigeons can be such territorial little sods that I’m sure the males will be visiting each spot to see if it is better and if they can turf the occupiers out. C’est la vie!

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas this year. We certainly did. Elmo and Georgie helped decorate the tree by flying up to the top to place the baubles and the star. … Just kidding. Our two pigeons cannot fly that well.

We placed Elmo and Georgie’s presents under the tree and they were certainly intrigued by the shiny packages.

Georgie and Elmo's Christmas presents

Georgie taking a closer look!

Elmo is curious too!

Here’s the boy opening his present:

We thought it was the perfect gift for Elmo because it moves about and is soft so he can preen it (or peck it if he so pleases!). Elmo sure had fun with the yappy puppy!

Georgie received a soft cuddly hedgehog to have in her cage so she can preen it (since she loves to preen fluffy things). Sadly, Georgie doesn’t like the camera so she rarely lets me take any video of her.

After we had all opened our presents and there were boxes, wrapping paper and bubblewrap everywhere, Georgie decided to have another look in case we’d missed anything. She loved the bubblewrap!

Georgie didn’t like the sound they made so she ran away whenever she heard them near her.

Georgie pigeon meets Fergie

We tried again to introduce Scarlet and Fergie to Elmo without him pecking them.

Elmo pecking the toy pigeons

Richard calmed Elmo down and then placed the toys near him in his nest, and Elmo tolerated them while he cooed and twitched to Richard:

We’ve already learnt that Elmo does not like any other pigeons in the home (our attempts with Dora, Minnie, and Button have all been a failure), so we really should stop collecting other pigeons (even inanimate, or in this case, animate ones). But I cannot help myself. Pigeons are simply too adorable.